In Our Corner of the World
by savvyliterate
Summary: Snippets from the life of a coffee addict and the diner owner who can't help but indulge her, or a collection of JavaJunkie drabbles and short stories.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: A few weeks ago, I started reblogging some lists of story prompts on Tumblr, and I got quite a few requests for Luke/Lorelai stories. These are the results of most of those requests, and I'll add to them as I write more.

* * *

 _Time of the Month_

Luke learned fairly quickly after starting to date Lorelai that she had painful monthly cramps. She spent whatever time she wasn't at work curled up on the couch. She managed to hide it in public, but at home, all bets were off.

He creeped into her house one of those days and leaned over the back of the couch to rub her back.

"Cuddle or leave," she moaned, hugging the heating pad to her stomach.

"So, that's a no to food?"

"What is it?"

"I made chicken noodle soup."

She managed a wan smile. "Then I can eat."

Lorelai managed to eat a bowl of the chicken noodle soup, and Luke could tell she was in a bad way because she failed to comment on the amount of vegetables he managed to sneak into it.

"Tell me what I can do to help," he said, arm wrapped around her waist as he led her to the stairs so she could lay down.

"Sing me to sleep?" she asked.

He scowled, and she laughed. "How about rubbing my back again?"

"I can do that." He rubbed circles in the small of her back as they walked into the bedroom.

* * *

 _The Ex_

Lorelai didn't see Jason Stiles again until four years after the Dragonfly opened, and it was apparent that her current dating status hadn't made its way to him. Granted, things between her and Luke had been on, then off, then on, then exploded, then rebuilt, and was now firmly stuck back in the "on" position.

Jason was a bit behind the times.

She made a hasty retreat when she insisted yes, she was back together with her former fiancé, and they were happy. Really happy. But Jason appeared dubious, so Lorelai quickly wove her way through the people her mother wrangled into attending this benefit to Luke's side, where he was getting them more fortification in the form of alcohol. She grabbed his arm.

"That's my ex-boyfriend," she said, nodding toward Jason.

Luke stiffened, recognizing him.

"He doesn't believe we're back together."

He started to open his mouth, whether to either retort or rant, Lorelai wasn't sure. She hastily added, "Well kiss me so he can see."

Luke shot one fuming glare in Jason's direction, then complied. It also helped that Lorelai was tugging him down to her.

* * *

 _The Project_

Every so often, Stars Hollow High cleared its archives of student projects it kept over the years.

During one of these purges, an interesting artifact fell into Lorelai's hands.

She had to go to the diner to show Luke right away..

"Hey, babe, look what I found," Lorelai announced, brandishing a lace-covered toddler-sized dress, clearly from the early 1980s. A nametag and a grade were pinned to the front.

Luke's jaw fell, then he jabbed his finger at the door. "GET THAT OUT OF THE DINER NOW!"

"Aw, Butch, but you did so well with your home ec project!"

* * *

 _The Lock Screen_

Luke didn't want the stupid iPhone in the first place.

He was trying to turn off notifications and wound up going through settings. In the process, he ended up replacing the lock screen wallpaper entirely by accident, and he decided it wasn't worth the hassle to replace it. It's not like anyone ever looked at those things.

Lorelai accidentally scooped up the wrong phone one morning, and he found out when she sailed into the diner for lunch.

"I'm your lock screen?!" she led with, surprised.

He went beet red. "You weren't supposed to see that," he hissed and fled into the kitchen before anyone could tease him about it.

* * *

 _Blackmail_

Lorelai's Adele CD had gone missing, but she wasn't quite sure where it had gone until she came home early to hear Paul Anka barking along to slightly off-key singing. When she realized who the singer was, she creeped through the living room. Fifteen seconds of video footage on her iPhone later, and she had enough blackmail material on Luke to last at least the next five years.

"Enjoy," she texted Rory and hit send just as Luke turned from the stove to see her.

He went pale. "How long have you been standing there?"

She smirked. "Long enough."


	2. Chapter 2

_The Idea_

They sat together with their grandchild, taking turns soothing the baby to sleep while allowing Rory to get some much-needed rest. Eventually, the baby wore itself out and they stood next to the crib, arms around each other's waist as they watched the child they loved so much sleep.

"We kind of just let the whole baby discussion drop for us, didn't we," Lorelai mused.

"I figured if you wanted to pursue it, you'd say something," Luke pointed out.

She chuckled. "Pot. Kettle. Black." They shared a grin born from experience and the ability to poke fun at themselves.

"Well, I had another thought about it. I wanted to ask but thought if I asked, you'd say no."

She saw the hurt in his eyes. "You don't know that."

"I know, I know." She hugged him harder and worried her lip. Then she plunged right in. "What do you think of fostering?"

* * *

 _Delivery Service_

"Hi!"

"… Lorelai?"

"Yeah!"

"How'd you get this number?"

"Oh, wrote it down, figure it might come in handy one day. Which, today is your lucky day, because it has!"

"Lorelai, I'm hanging up now."

"No, wait, Luke! I just need to place a delivery order!"

"I don't do delivery. Try Al's."

"But Al's isn't you!"

"And I thank God every day for that."

"C'mon, please, please, please? I need a cheeseburger, so does Rory, and we're starving!"

"You have two feet, just walk over here."

"I can't exactly do that."

"Lorelai!"

"You see, I broke my leg doing yoga."

"You broke what?!"

"Don't worry, I'm OK!"

"I'll be right there."

"I thought you don't do delivery!"

He just hung up the phone and ran to throw two burgers together.

* * *

 _The Fight_

The fight was utterly stupid: one of those little arguments you got into with your partner that escalated because of the silliest thing.

Now they were fuming at each other, gesturing and shouting at the top of their lungs because she was stubborn and he was stubborn, and both of them were determined to be the immovable object instead of the unstoppable force.

Lorelai finally threw up her hands. "Just come with me into the other room," she ordered, then didn't bother to wait for his reply.

But Luke was just done. "We're not going to talk about this now," he argued, following her to make his point, then drew to a halt at the birthday cake and presents waiting on the kitchen table. Shocked, he just stared at her.

She gave him a tired smile. "Happy birthday, babe."

* * *

 _It Really Does Work_

He sneaked up behind her, hands skimming down her waist as he pulled her into him. His teeth sank into her earlobe as his fingers danced beneath the hem of her shirt to draw circles on her midriff. She arched back into him, ass pressing into him as he moaned into her ear.

"Your voice is sexy," she murmured.

"Your ass is sexy," he replied, a certain part of his body showing her how much he approved of said ass. One hand slipped down to the button of her jeans, and with a quick twist, he had it popped open and was sliding it beneath her underwear. "I keep telling you those jeans really work for you."

"And for you," she gasped before she lost the ability to think at all.

* * *

 _Accidental Consumption_

Lorelai stumbled into the kitchen, following the siren's scent of freshly made coffee and what she hoped was a scantily clad partner. She sleepily grabbed the coffee pot, then squinted when she saw it was empty. But it wasn't empty like day-old-she-forgot-to-wash-it friendly. Clearly there had been coffee in there very recently. She could smell it, almost taste it.

She eyed her not-so-scantily-clad boyfriend suspiciously as he stood at the sink, drinking water as if his life depended on it.

"Where is my coffee?"

Luke stopped gulping down water and scowled. "Don't even start."

"Coffee existed in this once upon a time." She took a step close to him, sniffed his breath. "You _drank coffee!_ "

"It was an accident! TJ called, panicking because he accidentally put regular fuel in a diesel engine and wanted me to tell him how to drain it out. I was trying to get him to call AAA and grabbed the mug sitting out, thinking it was my tea … then I picked up your coffee by mistake."

"You drank coffee and I missed it!"

"Lorelai …"

"All I want is an apology," she sighed and kissed him, just to see what it was like having coffee on his tongue. But he'd drank enough water to where she couldn't taste it.

* * *

 _Round Three_

"And they're at it again," Lane told Rory, blatantly ignoring the no cell phone rule largely because her boss was too busy yelling at her best friend's mother to notice.

"Subject matter?" Rory asked.

Lane hit the speaker button on the phone just in time for Lorelai to yell, "Don't yell at me like a child!"

Luke jabbed a finger at where a pair of shears were now lodged in the wall. "THEN DON'T THROW SCISSORS!"

"It was an accident!"

Lane turned off the speaker. "See?"

"Why did my mom throw scissors in the diner?"

"I really wasn't paying attention to that part."

Rory sighed. "I wish they would just shut up and kiss already."

"I do too, but can it wait another week? My turn in the town pool's then."


	3. Chapter 3

_Blanket Consent_

Luke woke to the feel of soft lips on his, and his body reacted before his brain could register that it was stupid early in the morning and that he didn't have to work. He threaded his fingers through disheveled, curly locks and pulled her into him as the kiss deepened.

"Why do you only kiss me when I'm sleeping?" he murmured sleepily.

"You know you want it, babe," Lorelai replied in a husky voice.

"That's not a problematic statement at all," he pointed out, but kissed her again.

"Considering that three days after we began sleeping together you confessed how much you enjoy being woken this way, I took it as blanket consent."

Luke gave her a lazy smile. "Not disputing that."

The kisses grew heated, and hands began to roam. "God, I want you," Lorelai whispered and pulled back to undo her pajama top.

It was the last thing he wanted to do, but Luke stilled her hands. "Your mother's in the next room," he reminded her. They were on their agreed trip to see Emily in Nantucket, and a more than week had already passed.

It had been a very long eight days for the two intimate-hungry newlyweds.

"I can be quiet," Lorelai pouted.

"You're not as quiet as you think you are," Luke pointed out.

"Oh? And who's the screamer in this relationship?"

"Pot. Kettle. Black," he punctuated.

With a sigh, Lorelai flopped back down by her husband's side. "We're still newlyweds. It's a crime to curb our sex life."

"We've been together 10 years. 13 if you count the first round."

Lorelai waved a hand. "2006 never happened, and besides, the sex clock restarts once you say 'I do.'"

Luke chuckled a little. "Your mother does have her time at the museum tomorrow."

Lorelai shot him a wicked grin, already mentally planning what exhibit she planned to throughly explore once her mother left the cottage.

* * *

 _The Great Chili Fries Catastrophe of 2002_

"Is there a reason you're naked in my bed?"

Lorelai opened her eyes to find Luke looming over her, eyes studiously focused on the wall above the pathetic single bed that he clung to the way Richard Simmons stuck with his '80s hair and leg warmers.

"I haven't seen the vein pop out of your head lately, I thought I would see how long it would take to provoke it."

"Lorelai," Luke gritted.

"And there it is!" Pleased, Lorelai stuck a leg out from beneath the duvet to show off her jeans-clad leg. "You mean you didn't hear about the Great Chili Fries Catastrophe of 2002?"

"Why am I not surprised you were involved in that giant mess downstairs that caused Caesar to block off half the diner and Taylor to run around threatening to declare a disaster zone, and that 'the shenanigans in my business are directly affecting this town's reputation.'"

Luke reached for the duvet and tugged it, causing Lorelai to shriek and immediate cover her chest. "C'mon, you've gotta get out of here."

"No, give that back!" Lorelai scrabbled for the duvet with her free hand. "Quit it, or I'll bite!"

That vow made an illicit thrill go down the length of his spine, but he ignored it. He was using to ignoring thrills, tingles, and outright "situations" caused by one Lorelai Gilmore. Luke conceded the duvet for a moment as Lorelai swung her legs off the bed.

"I still don't get why you're naked up here."

"Not naked! Hello, nude bra! Jeans!" Lorelai plucked at the strap of said bra. "After Kirk managed to drop the entire plate of chili fries on me, Caesar insisted that I come up here and borrow a shirt so I wouldn't go home covered in chili, onions, and cheese, that you would insist on it. How should I know you chose today to get every flannel you own washed?" She reached for the flannel he had on. "Take it off."

"I'm not taking off my shirt!" Luke protested, knowing full well that any other time he would have offered it to Lorelai straight away. But coming upstairs to find her naked … ok, not-quite-so-naked but still in his bed … threw off his equilibrium to the point where rational sense also took a leap out the window.

Lorelai pursued in her quest for adequate clothing and started tugging at the cloth. "I fell asleep waiting for you. What were you doing, erecting the Great Wall of China?"

"Stop it, it tickles," Luke grumbled, realizing too late that he had just given Lorelai a very, very powerful weapon as her eyes widened, then narrowed with an unholy glee. He scurried away and began to undo the buttons of the flannel himself. "Fine, fine, I'll give you the shirt, then you're going home."

Lorelai slowly crossed the apartment, that unholy glee changing to outright mischief. "In a bit. I need to experiment."

Luke scurried behind the table, hoping it would be an effective barrier. Instead, it just trapped him against the sink. "Lorelai …"

"I just want to see how ticklish you are! You can scream if you want."

The plan his brain concocted wasn't exactly a good one, but Lorelai's fingers were within inches of his ribs, and Luke knew that if Lorelai made contact that he would either collapse from laughter, die from repressed desire, or both. He quickly whipped off the shirt and tossed it away. "There, fetch!"

Well, it did have the effect Luke intended. Lorelai drew to a halt. "Fetch?"

"Um …"

She arched an eyebrow. "Like a dog?"

"Not the best word choice," Luke admitted. He pointed at the shirt. "There it is. Wear shirt. Exit, stage left."

And he took the opening left by Lorelai gaping at him and fled before he did something insane like haul her back to his bed and undress her completely.


	4. Chapter 4

_The Hangover_

"Come on, Mom. Easy does it. We're almost there."

Rory carefully walked backwards, hands in her mother's as she carefully guided her toward their home away from home. The place of life, liberty, and damn good coffee. She pushed the door open with her butt, bells jangling softly as she backed into the diner.

"Too loud, too loud!" Lorelai whined, eyes closed as she stumbled over the threshold.

"There, there, I'll kill them as soon as we get some coffee into you," Rory soothed as she pulled Lorelai into the diner.

On the other side of the counter, Luke winced. Lorelai looked rougher than he'd ever seen her. Deep bags lined her eyes, and her hair hung in stringy clumps around her face. Lines of exhaustion were etched deep, and she wore a mismatched outfit of patchwork jeans and a faded pink tee with some sort of My Little Pony on it.

"Coffee, hurry," Rory begged, and he hesitated.

"I don't think she needs coffee."

"I need a new head," Lorelai moaned as Rory pushed her onto a stool. She promptly rested her head on the counter. "Please, Luke, surely you have a saw. Just hack it off and start all over."

He leaned on the counter. "You don't remember last night at all, do you?"

She cracked an eye open. "Why are you talking? Less talking and more grumpy coffee giver."

"I remember last night," he said, infusing his voice with an extra dose of cheer that made Rory giggle and Lorelai turn her head into the counter and groan. "I very clearly remember warning you not to be a taste tester for Miss Patty's new and improved Founder's Day punch. But did you listen?"

"I had half a cup," Lorelai whined.

"No, because you were all perky and Lorelai and volunteered."

 _"_ _Half a cup, damn it."_

"Now, was that the half a cup you had at the town meeting or the giant glass from the pitcher Patty sent us home with so Rory could try it when her flight got in late last night?"

"It tasted like Kool Aid," Lorelai sighed.

"Of course, then there was what you did after you drank an entire glass of the stuff." Luke leaned in close so the words were for her ears alone. "I believe you said something to the tune of 'I know what I want, when I want it. So get over here.'"

Lorelai barely found the strength to raise her head. "And if you ever want that again any time soon, you will take pity on me and get me some coffee."

"So you _do_ remember last night."

"I'm just going to sit over here and ignore the two of you now," Rory announced, pulling out her phone so she could text Lane.

"We're not flirting, we're arguing," Lorelai retorted.

"Please, everyone in this town knows that your fighting is code for extended foreplay." Rory shuddered. "And I am officially out of this. I'm off to see Lane and the twins. Your turn now," she informed Luke and dashed out of the diner before she could be stopped.

Lorelai flinched as the bells jangled again with Rory's exit, convinced they were ringing extra loudly because her daughter was an evil, evil human being. She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of the diner around her. The smell of bacon wafted from the kitchen, and normally what would be delightful made her stomach twist.

She heard the soft thunk of a glass beside her head and a second one from a plate. She cracked open an eye to see a full glass of ginger ale and a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich sitting next to her, along with some pills.

"Drink the ginger ale, take the Advil, then see if you can manage that, then you can have the coffee," Luke instructed as he moved around the counter to help other customers.

Groaning, she took a sip of the soda and took the Advil. She stared into her drink, vowing to never touch Founder's Day punch again as she waited for medicine to take effect. Reluctantly, she took a bite of the sandwich. Then a second.

Ten minutes later, the sandwich and soda were both gone, and the Advil was starting to take effect. Lorelai fished in the pocket of her jeans and managed to find a ponytail holder. She finished securing her hair back as Luke swung back by to check on her.

"How're you feeling?"

"Like six elephants are sitting on my head."

"That's good. It was seven earlier."

She managed a shaky smile. "Thanks."

"Go upstairs and lay down if you need to."

"I think I'll do that. At least until it gets down to four elephants." Lorelai slid off the stool, pleased she could stand without the room spinning. She started toward the curtain, then snagged Luke's arm as he passed by her with dirty dishes.

"I remember," she murmured in his ear, "that you responded to that little come-on of mine with last night with, 'I'm yours, in every way you'll have me.'"

Luke didn't say anything, but his eyes flared with heat. "It's true," he told her, his voice warm and husky. If sex had a soundtrack, he would be the narrator.

"And then you fell asleep." Luke hastily kissed her forehead and fled into the kitchen before Lorelai could retaliate.


	5. Chapter 5

_The Tattoo_

The night of their first date, Lorelai nearly ground everything to a halt when she got a look at good look at Luke's naked chest and upper arms for the first time.

"Is that a tattoo?" she asked, tracing her fingers over the mark.

"No, it's a beauty mark," he deadpanned. He reached for her, but she danced off to the side so she could keep inspecting it.

"That is the most tattooish tattoo I have ever seen," Lorelai said, trying to suss out what it was. "What is it?"

"Not telling."

"Come on, please?"

Luke kissed her into silence, using talented fingers to distract her to the point where Lorelai forgot about the tattoo. Almost.

Strange how things had a habit of coming back to haunt him.

"I'm thinking of getting a tattoo," Rory said in the diner on a visit to Stars Hollow more than six years later. "I think I should get something to commemorate my 25th birthday."

"Coffee cup?" Lane asked, dandling one of the twins on her knee. The other sat in his stroller, gnawing on the corner of a children's book.

"That would be Mom," Rory replied as the bells jangled and Lorelai stumbled into the diner with her arms ladened with binders. "Coffee cup tattoo?"

"Sorry, I'm reserving that one for me," Lorelai replied and thumped the binders in front of Rory. "We can still get matching tattoos of something else."

"No, we agreed that matching tattoos would be for my 30th birthday. What are these?" Rory tapped the binders.

"Tattoo ideas. By the way, when you go to get your tattoo, make sure it's a day Kirk isn't working."

Rory and Lane shuddered. The twin on Lane's knee began to cry.

Luke walked out of the kitchen, drying his hands with a towel. "Kwan OK?"

"Lorelai scared him," Lane told him, patting Kwan's back. "She invoked Kirk."

Rory rested her arms on the table. "Luke, what tattoo should I get?"

"None. You don't need one of those things."

"Hypocrite," Lorelai muttered, and Luke shot her _a look_. "He has a tattoo," she informed the girls. "It's some weird blob, but it's there."

"Oh?" Intrigued, Rory straightened. "Can we see your blob?"

"I made the mistake once of thinking 'This can't get weirder' when it comes to anyone with the name Gilmore. Sorry." Luke pivoted and started back to the kitchen.

"Is it somewhere … you know?" Lane alluded.

"No! No, no, no, it's just up here." Lorelai patted to the upper part of her body. "You know how he is. All shy, not wanting to strut his stuff."

"I'm not deaf you know," came from the kitchen.

"What do you think it is?" Rory asked Lorelai.

"Ink blob. Or maybe it was some secret pact with Rachel, and she has a matching one on her thigh. You know, from when they joined a satanic cult."

"It has nothing to do with a satanic cult, jeez," came from the kitchen.

The women fell silent. "So," Rory began.

"It _is_ something to do with Rachel," Lane finished.

"You're wrong, and I'll prove it," came from the kitchen.

Luke never had a chance to prove it. Lorelai tracked down Rachel's number through Facebook and called her that night. She confirmed that he was right - the tattoo had nothing to do with Rachel. But it had everything to do with Crazy Carrie.


	6. Chapter 6

_Eloping_

Eloping sounded like a good idea. A very good idea. A wonderful idea.

Until they reached the inn where their impromptu wedding party decided to make their home base, only to find that the rooms had been double booked and they only had one room.

"There's only one bed," Lorelai said, aghast. Rory and April hovered just behind her.

Jess edged himself around Luke and threw himself on the bed, sprawling out. "Well, I don't know where the rest of you guys are sleeping, but I'm pretty comfortable here. Now, if you want to get me naked, you'll have to convince me it'll be worth my time."

"Off," Luke barked as April snickered.

Jess never knew who threw the first pillow.

* * *

 _The Ticket_

Lorelai marched into the diner, her prize held aloft.

"Oh, where did you find it, sweetie?" Miss Patty asked.

"I found it in the recycling bin." She marched over to the counter and set Luke's cell phone in front of him. "Now, what do we say?"

"Get rid of that thing."

"That's not what we say." Lorelai spun around on her stool as he snatched a plate and walked around the counter to deliver it. "We say thank you to your kind, pretty, and benevolent girlfriend, who rescued your phone after you pitched a fit because Taylor had you cited for talking on your cell phone while in the truck. First person in Stars Hollow to be ticketed for distracted driving!"

He marched back past her. "You are having way too much fun with this."

"What's next in Luke Danes' life of crime? Talking in the quiet car on Amtrak?"

He pointed at her. "Shut it."

Lorelai just grinned. Not a chance in hell.

* * *

 _Flaunting_

"You had no idea how horrifying it was for me to just walk in on the two of you like that!" Lorelai smacked Luke's arm as they argued in the hall of the Independence Inn, minutes after her botched turndown. "You wanted me to walk in on you!"

"I wanted no such thing! You're the one who invited me, I wanted to help you out."

"By flaunting your girlfriend in front of me? I could do with a little less help there, Butch."

"You have no room to talk," he hissed. "Do I have to remind you who taught you how to fish for another man?"

"What, are you jealous?"

"Unbelievable," he sputtered and started back in the room.

"We're not done fighting!"

He whipped back around. "Yes, we are!"

And before she could argue once again, his lips were on hers and her back was against the wall. Then it was all heat and need, and when he pulled away, it was all she could do to stand.

The door closing behind him sounded like a gunshot.


	7. Chapter 7

_Sleep Talking_

It was a bizarre case of role reversal: usually Lorelai was the one to find him asleep on the couch when he got home from work. But thanks to Kirk and a series of mishaps Luke didn't not care to go back over in any way, shape, or form, he was trudging up to the house a mere 30 minutes before he had to be in bed to get up and do it all over again the next morning.

Lorelai was curled up on the couch, Paul Anka tucked against her side, dressed for the Friday night dinner he'd been forced to cancel his own appearance at. Guilt, a familiar friend, curled in his gut as he leaned over the back and gently brushed her hair until she stirred. Paul Anka butted at his hand until Luke patted his head before returning his attention to Lorelai.

"You're cute when you're half asleep like this." The words slipped out of him before he could stop them. Hopefully Paul Anka wouldn't tell.

"Did you get everything off the ceiling, babe?" Lorelai murmured.

"Eventually. Sorry about dinner. Did it go OK?"

"S'alright. It's Emily, so draw your own conclusions. I've had a rough day and honestly all I want right now is a drink and someone to cuddle with, but you're probably starving."

"I'm OK. Besides, there's not enough room for me on that couch right now." With a regretful sigh, Luke straightened. "I should really go to bed."

"I'll come with you." Lorelai nudged Paul Anka off the couch so she could get up. They trudged up the stairs, feeling very much like survivors of a war. Two distinctly different wars, but survivors all the same.

They each took a turn changing and brushing their teeth in the bathroom, then sank gratefully onto the bed. Her body naturally rolled into his, and he curled around her. Spoons, he thought, burying his face in her hair. Most of the time, they slept without touching now, but there were just some nights you needed to be spoons.

"I remember practicing how to ask you out in the mirror." The words slipped out again, and really he had to be that exhausted to admit what he'd done in the immediate aftermath of reading that damn psychology book all those years ago.

"What, babe?" Lorelai asked sleepily, and Luke let out a long, slow breath. OK, maybe he hadn't quite made a fool of himself.

She craned her head to look at him. "What on earth made you think of that?"

"Spoons. I dunno. I'm tired." He buried his face in her hair and just breathed. Then he pulled back. "You're not surprised to hear that."

"I already knew it."

Fully awake, Luke pushed into a sitting position. "What?"

Lorelai quirked a grin at him. "You talk in your sleep, Butch." Then she stole his pillow and left him lying awake to fret over what else he'd accidentally told her over the years.

* * *

 _Shooting Star_

During their month apart, he fled to the cabin because it was too hard to stay in Stars Hollow at first. He didn't even fish. He just sat on the dock at night, staring at the stars and wondering where it all had gone wrong. It'd been a bit of her, a bit of him. So stupid.

His cell phone was in his hand before he realized it, her number dialed, her voice coming over the voicemail.

"I saw a shooting star, and I thought of you," he wanted to say. Instead, he slowly shut the phone, ending the call.

* * *

 _Lonely_

Luke arrived on her doorstep the night he signed the divorce papers, alcohol on his breath that sharply reminded her of when Jess' biting words had driven him to drink and sent her into a fury.

"You're really drunk right now. I don't think you're gonna remember any of this," Lorelai told him as she settled him on the couch with a blanket and her favorite pillow. Not even Rory got to use her favorite pillow.

"No, I'm not drunk at all," he informed her. "You're just blurry."

She laughed and patted the blanket into place.

"I'm such a failure," he whispered.

"No, you're not. You didn't sleep with a Sock Man. Or Sock Woman. Or Sock Anyone." She rubbed his leg. "Try to sleep."

"I can't take the loneliness anymore." The words were so soft that she nearly didn't hear him at all.

Because it was dark, because he was drunk, because she was lonely as well, she cupped his face. She ran her thumb over his scruff and her lips ached. "You have me. You'll always have me." Before she could be foolish, she pulled away and curled into the chair to watch over him for the night.

* * *

 _Dating Advice_

"Oh, come on, come on. Say it."

"Don't even start."

Lorelai frowned at Luke over the counter and turned her attention back to her copy of _Cosmo_. "Fine. I'll demonstrate. 'Your lips are so soft. I could kiss them all day.' See? That's not so bad."

"Geez." Luke turned away from her, cheeks red, and she smirked. "Do you have to do that in here?" he muttered.

"Yes." Lorelai turned back to Kirk. "Now, come on, Kirk, repeat that."

"It just seems so … intimate," Kirk stammered and duck back under the quilt he had dragged into the diner with him.

"That's what _Cosmo_ specializes in. Lulu will love it." Lorelai leaned over and lifted the corner of the quilt. "You're hiding under that blanket because you're blushing?"

"Could we perhaps try something Mother would approve?"

"Your mother wouldn't approve of that?"

Kirk popped his head out. "She thinks Lulu and I should sit no closer than 32.3 inches apart at all times."

"Ah."

"Does that stuff really work?" Kirk motioned to the magazine.

"Absolutely," Lorelai said. "Look, I'll practice on Luke."

"You will not practice on Luke," he informed her and fled into the kitchen before his imagination got the better of him. Otherwise, he would start to imagine that Lorelai was telling his all this mushy stuff and actually meaning it.


	8. Chapter 8

_Wedding Night_

Lorelai stumbles over the pile of clothes on her way to the bathroom: the various pieces of his suit and the yards of cream satin that made up her dress. She nearly crashes into the dresser but manages to avoid it. Sleepily, she continues into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she's back out and making her way once more toward their bed. Their bed at home, because it's here in the castle they made together she wanted to celebrate the first night of their marriage. They had taken the home she made with Rory, expanded it into something for them, then made it over all over again after the disaster that was Christopher. The sentimentalist in her wanted to relive the first night they slept together in his apartment over the diner, but Luke had vetoed it with a horrified no. The apartment had mostly been changed back into an office, and Luke wasn't about to spend his wedding night in the diner.

Of course, the logical assumption would be the Dragonfly, which was the location of their first kiss. But Lorelai had recoiled from it for the same reasons Luke had the diner. Knowing her employees would know she's spending the night screwing her new husband into a new plane of existence was just weird. So, home it was, sans Rory of course.

Her toe nudges against his pants, and she feels something hard within them. Wallet, she thinks absently, starting to kick them aside. But maybe it was where her thoughts had taken her, but she suddenly remembers. She hadn't thought about it in years. OK, she'd been afraid to think about it, because she didn't want to know the answer. Surely it had been a causality of 2006, the worst year of her life. She'd been in his wallet hundreds of times in the years since, but she'd never brought herself to look in that one place.

Her hands shake as she dips into the pants pocket and pulls out the wallet, a different one from 2004 because that had fallen apart years ago. Which meant he had finally cleaned out his wallet at some point, and her heart shatters a bit further.

She flips it open and smiles at the disgruntled look on his driver's license, because they'd made him take off his hat and he always feels so self conscious about his hairline. Then she peeks into the compartment behind it, and her heart nearly stops when she sees the slip of yellowed paper, her faded handwriting still visible on it.

She starts to cry.

He startles awake at this, crawling out of bed and to her side because at some point she has sat on the floor and doesn't remember it. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asks, looking to see what she's holding. And he knows.

"You still have it," she sobs. "After all this time, after everything I did, you still have it."

"Of course I do," he says with such practicality that she smiles through her tears. His eyes are sober as she sniffs at him. "I never even thought of getting rid of it."

"Not even back then?" she whispers.

He shakes his head. "I couldn't … I never stopped, Lorelai. Not even back then. I'll never stop." He gives her a crooked half-smile. "Meant it with the body bags."

And she knows what he is saying, because despite the months of denial, it had been the same. She pretended, she tried to move on after they had gotten it so wrong, but she could never stop. And here's the proof. This little scrap of paper that held all they love they had for each other.

She swipes under her nose and he quickly rescues the horoscope before she could accidentally smudge or tear it. Carefully, he places it back where it belongs, then reaches up to put the wallet on the nightstand. They hold each other, not caring that they're naked on the floor or that they'll be sore in the morning because they're not exactly in their mid-30s any longer. But it doesn't matter. Not one bit.

* * *

 _Fluffy Socks_

It used to be that every time it happened, he would spend at least five minutes ranting about safety and insurance and OSHA regulations and all of the reasons why he couldn't let Lorelai do what she wanted.

After 13 years (give or take a year) in a relationship with her and seven months of marriage, all Luke did now was pick up the phone.

"I waxed the floors," he told her when she answered. "Grab your fluffy socks."

Then he waited and started the stopclock app on his phone. Because why not?

At 11 minutes and 12 seconds, Lorelai threw the front door of the diner open, eyes lit with unholy glee. She kicked off her sandals and donned a pair of insanely fluffy socks that had reindeer all over them that she picked up at the Canadian border specifically for this purpose. She clasped her hands to her chest as she stared at the empty diner, tables and chairs pushed against one wall because of the floor waxing. "It's beautiful."

"Let's just get this over with so we can go home," Luke grumbled.

"No, no, it has to be perfect!" Lorelai placed her hands on her hips. "Go back to the storeroom."

Luke rolled his eyes, mostly because he was already standing there. "Geez, Lorelai."

Lorelai waved him back further. "I want you to catch me!"

"I'm always gonna catch you!" Luke practically roared at her, causing Lorelai's smile to grow even wider.

The curtain rustled, and a heavily pregnant Rory emerged from the stairs leading to the upstairs apartment. "What are you two …" Her voice trailed off as her mother launched herself across the diner, sliding across the freshly waxed floor on fluffy socks and into her stepfather's arms. Rory was impressed. Luke didn't even grunt as he caught an armload of flailing Lorelai.

"I did it!" Lorelai cheered. "The full diner!" Then she pulled Luke down to her so she could kiss him somewhere into next week.

Rory sighed and patted her distended stomach. "Welcome to the family, kid," she muttered before waddling back upstairs.


	9. Chapter 9

_Magic Risotto_

"Hey, could you come taste this to see if it's OK?"

Lorelai looked up from the tax work she had brought home with her. Luke stood at the stove, a hopeful Paul Anka at his feet, patiently stirring the contents of the large stockpot on one of the burners.

Eagerly, she abandoned her work and grabbed the spoon from him. She blew on it, then popped it in her mouth. She closed her eyes and moaned, her toes curling in her socks. "Oh, you've got it."

"Yeah?"

"Hell, yes."

"Great." Luke grabbed the printed out recipe he had marked all over with a pencil and made a few more notes. He turned off the burner and moved the pot to one of the unlit burners. "Wanna grab some bowls?"

"In a second." Lorelai took another sample from the pot. "This is fantastic. You're the best. Now, who's gonna tell Sookie that you managed to figure out how to make her magic risotto?"

* * *

 _Burning Man_

"I can't believe he did this," Luke ranted.

"I can," Lorelai muttered.

"What the hell was Jess thinking? April's 19!"

"And in 50 out of 50 states, that's considered legally an adult."

"She's not old enough to go to Burning Man! Hell, I'm not even old enough for Burning Man, and I'm in my mid-40s!"

Lorelai curled her nails into a fist and wondered if they needed buffing. "46 in four months, not like anyone's counting."

"You're not helping at all." Luke started to push her legs out of his lap, but she wriggled free and resumed her very relaxing position on the couch that involved using her partner as her footrest. "Lorelai."

She frowned at him. "I don't wanna get up– you're comfy."

"I can't be mad if you're pinning me to the couch!"

"Maybe that's the whole point." Lorelai swung her legs off his lap, but before Luke could register his brief seconds of freedom, she had replaced her legs with her rear and now he had to stay put.

"Come on now, you're being too harsh." She poked a finger in his chest. "Remember all the stupid things we used to do when we were April's age?"

"You had a toddler, and I'd just found out my dad had cancer," he reminded her, draping his arms loosely around her waist.

"Well, there you go. We never got to do stupid things when we were 19 because we were too busy being adults. Let April have what we couldn't." Lorelai sighed theatrically. "And, as much as it pains me to the core to say it, Jess will never let anything happen to April."

Luke's stony silence spoke volumes.

"And, I checked in with Rory, and it just so happens that she's doing a freelance piece on the festival and will be there as well."

For the first time since learning the news, he relaxed. "Rory? Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well. If Jess and Rory are there …"

"See? Perfect!" Lorelai dropped a kiss on his lips and mentally crowed. She knew if anyone could talk Luke into bending on the issue, she could. She had some bragging to do to her skeptical pseudo-stepdaughter.

"They're staying in a hotel," Luke suddenly announced.

Lorelai just stared at him. "Babe, Burning Man doesn't work that way."

"I'm paying for it, and they're not staying in some tent in the middle of nowhere."

"Right." Lorelai reached for her iPhone, which sat on the table. "Time you and I go on a double date with reality check and Google."

* * *

 _The Mockers_

"There you are," Lorelai stared down the three not-so-innocent faces arranged around the dinner table and her husband. "The mockers of my life and the raiders of my DVR."

"You have to admit," Jess said, "there was some quality stuff you've got hoarded on there. And don't think we didn't see how you divided it into Hallmark and Lifetime movies."

"Is it possible to love too much?" April asked in a breathy, exaggerated voice. She clasped her hands to her chest. "I could never leave you, I love you too much! I want this to never end …"

"And you," Lorelai said, jabbing her fork at Rory, "shall I talk about the VHS tape of The Truth About Jane you have hidden under your bed?"

"You have to find it first," Rory said cooly.

"I am so giving you the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman boxset for Christmas."

"And I'm returning the seven boxsets of Designing Women that I got you."

Lorelai gaped at Rory. "You wouldn't dare!"

Rory's eyes sparkled. "Just watch me. I'm gonna have April Facebook Live the whole thing."

"You ought to see how many viewers I got when I was recording us going through the DVR," April boasted.

"Y'know," Jess said sotto voce to his uncle, "I love how you fail to mention the fact that you were the one who told the three of us to use the upstairs bedroom to wrap Christmas gifts and feel free to watch anything on the DVR while we're at it."

Luke said nothing and just took another bite of salad.

Jess smirked and approved of his uncle's evil tactics.

* * *

 _The Mall_

With marriage came a certain sense of togetherness, but really it had been there since she returned from her Wild trip. But, Lorelai argued, they always spent the vast majority of their free time together to begin with. It wasn't out of a sense of possessiveness, but rather over the nine years they had managed to strike that balance between the best friends they'd always been and the lovers that they were.

It had been a bit of a learning curve.

Still.

"We've become the clingy newlyweds you always complained about," she teased Luke when he willingly followed her to the mall … THE MALL … to do Christmas shopping.

"I'm not clingy," Luke said, looking like he'd just had a sip of Lorelai's sugar-ladened Christmas coffee confection. He had offered to just straight up pour a bag of sugar into her bloodstream, but she pointed out it lacked chocolate and caffeine that way. "It's expedient to do all this at once."

"Expedient," she told him, "would be Amazon."

Now he scoffed. "D'you know how many recalls are out for the stuff sold on there?"

So they wandered the mall, and he ranted and secretly enjoyed every second by her side.

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'm so happy I can finally call you my husband," Lorelai gushed hours later.

"You're only saying that because I'm carrying all the bags," Luke groused. Neither of them mentioned that he would had carried the bags for her regardless of their marital status.

He pointed out that he had run out of hands, but she blissfully told him to use his arms. He retorted that he'd need to use his teeth at some point, and she blatantly invited him in front of the Auntie Anne's to use said teeth on her anywhere and anytime he'd like.

Luke face nearly matched the color of Santa's suit as he stared bashfully at the tiled floor.

"Didn't you say this morning," he reminded Lorelai in the food court a few minutes later, "and I quote, 'We both have nowhere else to be so we get to spend our rare day off at home.'"

Lorelai made a non-committal sound and took a bite of what claimed to be orange chicken. He swore even Al's made more authentic Chinese than this.

"And we'll still have plenty of time to spend at home. It's only 2 p.m."

"And we still have another level of this place to get through."

"No, I think I'm about ready to go home." Lorelai nodded to the bags arrayed around Luke like he'd won a mall shopping spree. "Look in the pink one."

"What?"

"Look. In. The. Pink. One."

"I am not riffling through a Victoria's Secret bag in the middle of the damn mall, Lorelai!"

"OK, suit yourself." She twirled lo mein on her fork.

Luke scowled at her, then angled his head to peer inside the bag without making it obvious he was actually doing so. He used his pinkie to move the tissue paper disguising the contents aside. His eyes went wide, pupils huge as he gaze at the item in the bag, then at Lorelai, then back at the item.

"So …," she said lazily. "Home?" And laughed when he started grabbing all the bags.


	10. Chapter 10

_Four times the stars were nearly written in_

They meet somewhere in the middle, which was in the vicinity of Providence, Rhode Island. They talked about grabbing some dinner, spending the evening walking through downtown, maybe even seeing a movie.

The moment they got out of their respective vehicles and stared at each other for the first time in three weeks, that plan promptly got tossed out the window.

They were wrestling each other's clothes off by the time the door to their shared B&B room closed at their backs, barely able to stop kissing long enough to deal with things such as shirts, underwear, and condom.

At some point, they simply collapsed to the rug, unable to be apart any longer. It probably set a speed record when it came to quickies.

"I always wondered if we ever did this if would we make it to the bed." Lorelai could barely see the beautiful 4-poster out of the corner of her eye. "Glad to see I was right."

Still gasping for air, all Luke could do was press his face into the crook of her shoulder and laugh.

* * *

Rory wanted a bit of normalcy, so they headed to the opening of the cider mill and everything it had to offer despite the fact that the parade had rained on the reunion Lorelai had waited weeks for.

Besides, it was free cider. Lots and lots of free cider.

Rory had been quiet the entire time, and Lorelai suspected that it had something to do with Dean. Everything in her wanted to yell at her daughter for her own bad choices, but Rory was an adult now. She needed to figure this stuff out.

But it was hard to ignore the looks various members of town were throwing their way, and Lorelai found herself wanting to throw an arm around Rory's shoulders and staring them all down.

Then she found a cup of cider thrust in her hands.

"Don't let them bother you," Luke told her in a low voice, steering her away from the clusters of gossips standing around.

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugged and before he was forced to come up with an answer, Rory caught sight of him. "Hey! Lane said you drove her up here. That was sweet."

"Sweet or an excuse?" Lorelai muttered under her breath, and grinned when Luke realized he had been well and truly caught.

"I'm going to spend some time with her. You two have fun!" For the first time all day, Rory smiled, then scurried off to let them wander the cider mill celebration together.

* * *

Rory insisted on going to every Black, White, and Read movie showing from the time she got back to the day that she left for Yale. Lorelai knew she had something to prove, and of course she was going along to show her support.

And if Luke happened to squeeze onto the couch next to her and pay for their tickets, snacks, and drink during every show, well … Lorelai wasn't going to argue over that either.

Nor was she going to argue when he found excuses to bring her lunch at the Dragonfly or stop by the Crap Shack to repair something. It always led to the two of them furiously making out in either her office or the laundry room. His magic fingers managed to take the edge off it for her a couple of those times, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough.

* * *

"The good thing about the Harvest Festival," Lorelai told Sookie, "is that we can reuse everything from the cider mill opening and still have it thematically appropriate."

Sookie gestured across the town square at the diner. "When are the two of you going on a date?"

Lorelai huffed. It felt like in the weeks that Rory had been home that they had gone on a lot of tiny, tiny dates, but nothing that fell into the typical "man takes woman out to dinner, man and woman spend the rest of the night having hot sex" date. It wasn't bad, but considering the taste of Luke she got to sample in Rhode Island more than a month earlier, she was definitely … hungry.

She didn't wait for him to show up at the festival, rather crossed the square to the diner and marched in as he was cleaning. "Can we go on a date?"

The searing look Luke gave her told her that he'd been thinking about it as much as she'd been. "When does Rory go back to school?"

"Next Tuesday." Damn him for being considerate of her time with Rory and the need to repair their fractured relationship. But it warmed her to her toes that he was implying that their first real date would not involve one of them going home at the end.

Too impatient to wait, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to the stairs. It was a testament to his own impatience that his hands shook as he unlocked the apartment door.

Several minutes later, Lorelai drug in a deep breath and peered across the apartment at the new, bigger bed. It required moving her bra, which somehow had landed in her hair when they tore it off her. "Wow, that looks nice."

On top of her, Luke made a low, sleepy sound of approval as he nuzzled into her neck.

Her hands slid beneath the loose waistband of his jeans, which he hadn't manage to remove before they simply imploded. "Maybe we'll actually get to a bed by our first real date. Not that your floor isn't nice and clean, which it is."

The floor may have won that round as well, but Lorelai felt she was on top of the world.

Maybe she could make it until next Tuesday.

Maybe.


	11. Chapter 11

_The Land of Corn_

"Mom?"

"Hey, kid! Make it to the land of corn in one piece?"

"I'm in Iowa, not Nebraska."

"There's corn in Iowa!"

"I think it's better known for the potatoes. Look, I just wanted to make sure you were OK."

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be OK?"

"Because it's you."

Lorelai gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. "I can't believe the words coming out of your mouth."

"Look, I know how hard it is for us to be separated, and I just want to make sure that you're not alone," Rory quickly replied. "It's been a rough year, and I know we wanted more time together before I left."

"Don't worry, kid, I'm not alone."

"Luke's there?"

Lorelai turned her head to the side, smiling gently. "Yeah."

Rory's sigh of relief was audible over the phone. "Thank goodness. I mean, I knew you two are going to work things out, and I know Dad won't get in the way now."

"What, no naked jokes?"

Rory snorted. "Please. I know better now than to ask if Luke's naked in our kitchen."

"OK." Lorelai cast her gaze to the ceiling, then around the kitchen where various items of clothing were flung, then at the sated man lightly dozing at her side. She couldn't repress the giggle and the absurd thought that linoleum was really hard on bare skin.

Rory's silence spoke volumes. "Wait a minute. Mom. Mom, is Luke naked in our kitchen?"

Lorelai just smirked. "Love you, kid!"

"No, Mom, answer me for real! I mean it! Mom? Mom!" Rory yelled as Lorelai snapped her phone close, turned the ringer off, and tossed it somewhere in the direction of the living room as it began to vibrate.

"Is Rory OK?" Luke murmured in a sleepy voice.

She rolled on top of him. "She's among the potatoes and potentially scarred for life." She pushed herself into a sitting position. "Meanwhile, I'm thinking dessert. I'll start right here." She leaned forward to lave her tongue against the pulse in his neck to start round two of extremely hot kitchen make-up sex.

* * *

 _Owning Up_

The summer they got back together was the hardest in Lorelai's life. Yes, it was even harder than the spectacularly crappy summer that was last year, because she had at least retreated into her comfort zone of running away from her feelings.

But now god, oh god, she was having to lay herself bare in a way she had never done for anyone because she wanted this to work so badly. She knew back in the spring, when she and Luke became a possibility again, that it couldn't go on as before. They both easily acknowledged the fact that while they were very good together, there were very bad things that drove their engagement right off the rails.

It was easy for her to dispense life advice to Rory or to hide her thoughts among a plethora of pop culture references. Really revealing her emotions? She only did it with one other person in her adult life, and it was the man she had hurt the most.

It was a strain on her, on them. But it spoke to their own tenacity and stubbornness that they were tackling these issues together. Since she walked back into the diner the day Rory left, they had worked on them. Everything else was pushed to the side as they talked and yelled at each other, the tension wound so tight at times that she was surprised they didn't just snap in half. But it seemed to be an unspoken thing between them: together or not at all.

Lorelai thought she would have to talk Luke into getting away for a few days, but he surprised her by readily agreeing with her before they broached the minefield that was Christopher. In fact, he agreed with her so fast that she wondered if the same thing had been on his mind.

Or maybe he was just as horny as she was.

But hashing out everything about Chris also brought back the guilt that crippled her through the previous summer. She had been so blind with pain that she had done everything she could to cut it off at the source. And that had been to sleep with Chris. While it technically hadn't been cheating since Lorelai had ended the engagement barely two hours earlier, on many levels, it had been. She'd gone for the jugular, and had landed her attack with devastating results.

It had taken that failed marriage and the better part of a year for her to realize she had been complicit in her silence leading up to the ultimatum. It took two to explode a relationship - she witnessed this firsthand with her parents. Over the past few weeks, Luke had owned up to his part in the failure of their engagement. Now she was doing the same, and it made her doubt everything she was. It was like buying that really expensive Christian Dior dress hanging in the back of her closet, then instantly regretting it the moment she had it home and out of the bag with the tags cut off and the dress not returnable.

* * *

 _Costumes_

There is a correct way to do Halloween the first time you actually remember the holiday, Lorelai insists, and she is not stinting because this year their grandchild will be old enough to choose his own costume.

It's times like this that Luke privately thinks that Lorelai resembles her mother the most, but he's a wise enough man not to point it out. He sees where she's coming from. Rory's childhood costumes had been whatever homemade items Lorelai could assemble from things left behind at the Independence Inn, and she wants her grandson to have some of the material advantages that his mom didn't have at that age.

Luke's not sure how he managed to evade being dragged into Halloween hell in all the years he's been with Lorelai, but as he follows his wife through the aisles of a Spirit Halloween, he knows the depths of his devotion to her have no bounds.

* * *

 _Going Wild_

Luke realizes Lorelai's dead serious about the trip when she seeks his help in buying hiking boots. Real hiking boots, not some sort of Hello Kitty-emblazoned thing that's pink and covered with glitter. So they drive to the REI that's in West Hartford, and he winds up selecting almost everything for her trip, because he wants her to be safe.

His heart twists when she selects several flannel shirts off the rack that reminds him of his own clothing, tucked away in half a closet she's starting to take back over.

They're subdued in the days between the fight in the diner and when she departs on the Wild trip. The awkward silence hadn't even existed between them in the terrible days after Richard's death and funeral, when Rory left and Emily ignored her and he was there to pick up the pieces. All they had was each other, and now it was strained.

It occurs to him, on the last night before the trip, that it'd been weeks since they made love. He racks his brain and realizes the last time was around the time April visited, and he wonders if he had realized this sooner that he would had caught on to everything a bit quicker.

* * *

 _Dark Day_

It took Luke until midday to realize what day it was because he was on his honeymoon, and that was something he honestly thought he would never get to experience.

The thought never crossed his mind during that ill-fated marriage to Nicole. Probably because the cruise had been wedding, honeymoon, drunken regret all wrapped in a neat cruise-shaped package. The first engagement with Lorelai hadn't gotten quite to honeymoon discussion, and it had been put on the taboo shelf once they shelved their initial June 3, 2006, wedding plans.

But now it was November 29, 2016, and Luke was on his goddamn _honeymoon_.

They hadn't left straight after the wedding, because the day after Thanksgiving was the first open date that Emily's travel agent could secure them for this frankly impressive villa on Malta, of all places. The weather was miserable in Stars Hollow according to his phone's weather app, but he was standing on a sunny island beach in shorts and one of the Hawaiian shirts Lorelai refused to stop mocking him for.

The Mediterranean spread before him, and a village far, far older than any of them was at his back. Lounging next to him was the best sight of all - his wife in a bikini.

Ever since he and Lorelai finally started living together, this day had grown less and less dark. He still remembered. It still hurt. But Luke kept the diner open now instead of closing it. He no longer visited the graves alone. Lorelai and April had invited themselves along that first year, and eventually Liz, TJ, and Doula started coming as well. Even Jess dropped by a time or two.

Instead of a day where Luke shuttered himself off from the world and wallowed in the pain and guilt, it had turned into an annual celebration of both of his parents. Liz unearthed the family albums she kept, and Lorelai had found Luke's among his things when he moved in. He and Liz would show the pictures to April, Jess, and Doula. Even Rory had been home once. There was always a large dinner at the Crap Shack, and it seemed like a second, more relaxing Thanksgiving. There was a bit of melancholy, but no overwhelming sadness.

And now, he was standing on a beach in Mellieħa, Malta, with his wife, and he didn't feel sad at all.

"Hey. You OK?"

Luke turned at her voice, and he saw that Lorelai was holding her phone. She knew as well as he did what day it was.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he told her. "I'm really fine."

Her smile was more beautiful than the impressive view before them. "I'm glad."

"Me too." And he pulled her to her feet, plotting exactly how he would coax her out of that bikini.


End file.
